Officials identify Florida journalist killed while reporting at scene of murder

A Florida journalist killed near Orlando on Wednesday was identified as 24-year-old Dylan Lyons.

Lyons, a reporter for Spectrum News 13, was fatally shot on Wednesday afternoon while at the scene of a murder. Officials said Keith Melvin Moses, 19, shot Lyons and a colleague before walking into a nearby home and shooting a woman and her nine-year-old daughter. The girl died.

John Mina, the Orange county sheriff, said Moses ambushed Lyons and Walden as they were at the scene of a murder Moses is accused of committing. It was not clear if Moses knew Lyons and Walden were members of the media.

Lyons joined Spectrum News in 2022 as a multimedia journalist, according to his biography on the station website. Born in Philadelphia, he attended the University of Central Florida, where he earned a degree in journalism and political science and anchored the student-run news station.

He worked for a local news station in Gainesville and in 2020 won a best politics/elections series award from the Florida Association of Broadcast Journalists, for his coverage of a congressional race. In 2021, he was a finalist for investigative reporting for a story about a woman abusing dogs.

Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, offered condolences on Twitter.

At least 67 journalists were killed around the world in 2022, according to the Committee to Project Journalists. One was Jeff German, an investigative reporter for the Las Vegas Review-Journal who was stabbed outside his home.